You are here

TV Shows explain Summer solstice proclaiming Wednesday as first day of summer

Tune into PBS TV and online Wednesday morning to view the sun warming over the country flowers as the primrose sky seems to reach out and touch “Chaco Canyon,” New Mexico, as the Summer Solstice is unveiled in all its glory.

Summer Solstice at Chaco Canyon is just one TV offering on PBS Wednesday, June 20, as the dazzling white blur of the sun welcomes the first day of summer; while PBS “Kids Watch” programming across the nation will feature a variety of both entertaining and informative TV shows about Wednesday’s “Summer Solstice.” Also, go to PBS online at solsticeproject.org for more TV and online Summer Solstice programming that’s not only for kids; but adults as well who may not know that the Summer Solstice occurs “exactly when the axial tilt of a planet’s semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits,” explains the PBS “solstice project.” In turn, most popular morning TV news magazines, talk shows, and even TV entertainment programs have all hyped their special “Summer Solstice” reports for Wednesday.

Also, stay tuned to your local TV weather report for tomorrow’s first day of summer; dubbed the “Summer Solstice” with your local TV weather person most likely telling you that the word “solstice” derives from the Latin word “sol” (sun) and “sister” meaning “to stand still.”

In turn, TV fans might also catch a rerun of the popular CBS show “The Big Bang Theory” that features Sheldon explaining just what is Summer Solstice, with the punch line being “the longest day of the year.”

PBS Kids covers the Summer Solstice on TV and online

It's known that PBS programmers fully understand that with school out, kids home and June 20 being the first day of summer, many young people and their parents may wonder “what’s the big deal about the Summer Solstice?” After all, the PBS "mission" is to not only entertain but to inform.

Thus, go to pbskids.org for interesting videos, games, links to PBS parents and PBS teacher’s sites and TV programming that will make this first day of summer more fun.

Also, the PBS TV solsticeproject.org website details why this longest and also shortest day of the year “happens twice each year, at which times the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the North or South Pole respectively.”

In turn, this PBS TV program explains how “the Summer Solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet’s semi-axis is a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits.”

Thus, science experts also tell us that when the “Earth’s maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23 degrees at 26’, and thus, in the Northern Hemisphere this is the Northern solstice, and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the Southern solstice.”

Kids may know more about the solstice than parents, thanks to PBS

At a senior center in the retirement community of Florence, Oregon - where grandkids and great-grandkids are often paraded into community TV rooms come summertime to visit with their older family members – many seniors say “we forget all the ins and outs of why such and such happens.”

Thus, Kate told Huliq during a June 19 interview that “I tell my grandkids to watch PBS with me because I know it’s about learning more than violence. I just might have them tune in tomorrow to watch the first day of summer,” adds the 82-year-old grandma with a big grin on her face at the prospect of her grandkids being off from school for the summer break.

Also, most elementary and high school science text books will tell you how the Summer Solstice is viewed as an “instant in time,” while the term is also colloquially used like “Midsummer” to refer to the day on which it occurs.

Meanwhile, the PBS “solstice project” has fun with kids who may wonder if the Summer Solstice happens everywhere on Earth on Wednesday, June 20.

In turn, the solstice project – that can be enjoyed on PBS and PBS online – explains that the Summer Solstice occurs all over our planet “except in the polar regions where daylight is continuous for many months, and the day on which the summer solstice occurs is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight.”

Moreover, kids may like to know that worldwide – the interpretation of the Summer Solstice is viewed “as a major event with varied events among cultures;” while parents should also know that the Summer Solstice is “a recognition of a sign of fertility,” that involves holidays, festivals, gatherings and many strange rituals happening tomorrow, June 20, as the Summer Solstice breaks over our Earth.

Image source of a diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the north. Far left: summer solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. Front right: summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere. Photo courtesy Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice